For a Growing Number of Teachers, Children's Literature Is Hot Topic

FREDERICK COUNTY, Va.--It is a little after 4 P.M., and eight
teachers, a librarian, and a principal are gathered around a big oak
table in the library here at Armel Elementary School. It looks like the
sort of after-school gathering that might be discussing a troublesome
student, parking issues, or some other matter of school policy.

The subject of discussion here, however, is books. "Good'' books.
Young-adult novels, adult fiction, professional-development books.
Textbooks and readers are definitely not on this group's agenda.

"Teachers can always find ways to use books in the classroom,'' says
Anita Jenkins, the 4th-grade teacher who leads this group. "But
teachers almost never take the time to discuss books among
themselves.''

Teacher reading groups like this one, which meets monthly, are
springing up in schools all over the nation this year. The groups are
an outgrowth of a two-year-old program known as Teachers as Readers.

Initially begun by the Association of American Publishers' Reading
Initiative and the Virginia State Reading Council, the program has an
engagingly simple premise: Put books in the hands of teachers,
encourage them to meet to discuss them, and, thus, rekindle in them a
love of reading. The hope is that the teachers' enthusiasm for
literature will eventually spill over into their classrooms and schools as well.

"If you can really hook children into reading in the early grades,''
says Mary Sue Dillingofski, who directs the A.A.P.'s Reading Initiative, "you hope that they become lifelong readers.''

Growing Quickly

The Teachers as Readers program was launched in this state last year
as an experiment involving 36 elementary school teacher reading groups.

The idea was loosely modeled on a project conducted in 1988 and 1989
by researchers at the Teachers College Writing Project at Columbia
University. The researchers, Lucy Calkins and Shelley Harwayne, pulled
together diverse groups of educators in New York City to read and
discuss the works of Mary Gordon, Anne Tyler, and other contemporary
authors. Five years later, Ms. Harwayne says, many of those groups are
still meeting.

"The intention was to give teachers an image of good 'book talk,'
and, at some point later on, they begin to think about, What are the
implications for the classroom?'' Ms. Harwayne says. "How can we create
this same experience for our students?''

The Teachers as Readers project, however, seeks a more direct link
to the classroom. It specifies that the groups read at least four new
children's books. The groups also can choose to read one
professional-development book.

Ms. Dillingofski says the focus on children's books is important
because so many are being published now. The growth of the "whole
language'' movement, which calls for extensive use of literature in
teaching reading, has helped make children's publishing a $1
billion-a-year industry in recent years.

"Five thousand new children's books are published each year, and
teachers just can't keep up,'' she says, "so they tend to rely on the
same old chestnuts.''

Few Rules

Beyond that restriction, however, there are few guidelines. The
sponsors require only that the reading groups include a principal or a
district administrator and that they meet at least six times. It is
also suggested that groups include no more than 10 members. New groups
receive $500 or more to buy books for each member.

"This is something that's easy, and you can do it on a local
level,'' Ms. Dillingofski says. "That's the charm of it.''

The simplicity and flexibility of the program have contributed to
its rapid growth. Virtually all of the groups started in Virginia last
year are still meeting this year with no funding from the program. Some
have found funding elsewhere; others, Ms. Dillingofski says, have vowed
to read every book in their local libraries.

In addition, dozens more groups have sprung up in school districts
throughout the state.

This school year, the project has expanded nationwide and enlisted
the aid of such major national groups as the National Council of
Teachers of English, the International Reading Association, and the
American Library Association, which use their resources and large
memberships to advertise the idea to teachers. And teacher reading
groups are expanding into secondary schools and colleges. At least
6,000 school districts have received information kits on the
program.

Becoming a Professional

Ms. Jenkins's group, drawing together educators from two elementary
schools, was one of the pilot groups formed last year. The group
received $850 and read a variety of books, ranging from The Wretched
Stone by Chris Van Allsburg to Carolyn Reeder's Shades of Gray. Each
member of the group also read a different professional-development
book, which was shared with other members.

This year, the group solicited a $200 grant from a local chapter of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars to keep going.

The group has also inspired the formation of four other teacher
reading groups in the small city of Winchester and in the rural county
surrounding it.

At the group's meeting last month, the subject of discussion was
Nothing But the Truth, a young-adult novel by Avi. The story centers on
a teenager who is suspended from school for humming along with the
"Star-Spangled Banner'' in class. The incident takes on major
proportions as the media begin to report on it and the matter comes
before the school board. The brouhaha has devastating consequences for
both the rebellious student and his teacher.

The narrative is told through the use of memos, transcripts of
conversations, newspaper articles, letters, and journal entries.

The book's familiar terrain sparks a lively discussion for the
reading group. Over coffee and cake, the educators talk about how the
experiences recounted in the book compare with their own. They refer to
points in the story where a coach, a counselor, or a principal should
have acted differently, and they express sympathy for the teacher and
the pupil.

"What I liked about this book is that you could really see both
sides,'' one teacher volunteers.

It does not matter so much, these teachers say, that some of the
books they read, like this one, are aimed at readers older than their
students, who range in grade level from 1st through 4th.

"Now I enjoy reading books I'll never use in my classroom,'' says
Mary Lou Gulosh, a 3rd-grade teacher at Armel. "In fact, I like some of
the young-adult books more.''

More important, these teachers say, are the other benefits the group
derives from their meetings.

"I don't think there's any doubt teachers need contact with one
another to have some intellectual stimulation,'' Kaleen Baker, a
4th-grade teacher, says.

"Now, you have the time set aside,'' she adds, "you know you're
going to do it, and, suddenly, you feel, gosh, I'm a
professional.''

New Perspective

Melvin Pearson, Armel's principal and the only man in the group,
says the talks have given him a new perspective on his job.

"I don't work in a classroom every day,'' he says. "Being involved
with a group of teachers and hearing them talk about things they enjoy
has helped my perspective and has helped me stay a little more
open-minded about things.''

The involvement of principals or other administrators is also key,
Ms. Dillingofski says, because they typically set school budgets for
children's books.

In a survey of the 36 pilot groups, 74 percent of the principals
said they planned to increase their budgets for children's trade books
as a result of participating in the project.

What surveys cannot adequately measure, however, is whether the
discussions are affecting the teaching going on in the classrooms of
the teachers involved.

The teachers in this group say their book talks are making a
difference, whether it is simply using more picture books in class or
modeling their enthusiasm for literature to their students.

Ms. Jenkins, who teaches 4th grade at Virginia Avenue Elementary
School in nearby Winchester, says she has come to understand that
learning literature is not a matter of coming away with one "right''
interpretation. Pupils can develop their own perspectives.

"My children and I are doing literature groups now that I don't
really feel I have to be a part of,'' she says.

Vol. 12, Issue 23, Page 6, 7

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